Hunter's Mercy
by deathraptor22
Summary: While on the trail of the Werewolf Alpha, Sam and Dean encounter a hunter named Mercy, who has a deep secret that puts her in danger. Takes place in season six.
1. Chapter 1

Dean Winchester pulled into the gas station, and in front of the gas pump. He looked over at his younger brother, Sam and said, "Hey, ah, could you get the gas? I kinda have to-" He nodded his head.

"Sure," Sam said, then got out of the car, the same time Dean did.

"Oh, thank you," Dean said, sounding relieved and almost grateful, "Thank you so much." They had just arrived in the town of Blue Rocket, Michigan on a case. In the last month alone there has been six fatal "animal attacks" and at least two people had just gone plain missing, one of them a pregnant woman. And they had discovered at least ten more attacks like that in the last year, and the ear of a runaway teen had been found looking like it had been _bit _ off. Nine of these incidents matched up with the lunar cycle perfectly, and even though the others were out of sync with said cycle, it wouldn't be the first time a werewolf transformed when it wasn't a full moon lately. So they drove for about seventeen hours nonstop across country, half that time with Dean holding a full bladder, so he was very egger to go relieve himself.

A bell went off as Dean entered the store. He turned to a store clerk, a pale man with glasses about the same age as him, and asked, "Hey, um, you guys have, ah, a bathroom right?"

"Down that isle, then turn left," The clerk said, pointing out the direction and sounding board.

"Thanks man," Dean said, then ran in the directing the clerk had pointed out. He didn't notice however that before that moment he walked through the woman in a denim jacket who had been in there before he came in had hid behind the row of chips and was ducked down in the isle beside the one he ran down, almost cringing at his footsteps.

The woman waited while before she stood up. She warily walked to the other side of the room and hid away in the corner. She didn't want the man who had just come in and fled to the bathroom to notice her. She could smell the snatch of old death on him the moment he walked in. That the overall look of him just screamed out to her, "hunter." _"What in God's creation is he doing here?" _ She though. She knew it was a stupid question the moment she thought it, the same thing that brought her here, those friggin' werewolves attacks. She nervously put a strain of her long dark hair that was flying lose behind her ear. After what seemed to her like an eternity, the young man finally stepped out into the store and out of the door, her eyes following his every movement. He went out and joined a younger, albeit strangely taller, man at a pump in front of an old black car. When they drove off and the car wasn't even a speck in the distance, she quickly got the crappy cup of coffee she had came for from the machine, paid for it and got back in truck, a red one with a covered bed. She let out a deep breath and slid her hand down her face. _"What am I going to do?" _ She thought. She couldn't risk running into them again. It was too dangerous for her. Maybe she should just leave, look for another job and leave them to this one. _"No,' _ She decided to herself, _"I have to be on this one. I know more about Werewolves than anybody else, even those two guys, whoever they are. I just have to avoid them into this is over." _ It had to be that way. If they found out her secret, they wouldn't split hairs, they wouldn't care that she was a hunter like them. If they found out she was dead.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm Agent Jimmy Page, this is my partner, John Boham," Dean said, flashing his fake id at the deputy, "We'd like to take a look at the bodies from the animal attacks.

The deputy look as if he wasn't sure what to do, which he wasn't. How many Federal Agents does it take to investigate a wild animal, no matter how weird they were? But he was a rather timid young man so all he did was awkwardly say, "Sure, this way," And he lead them to coroner's office and handed them off to corner, a older gentlemen with graying brown hair. "This," The coroner said, pulling a drawer open, "Is the last victim. Scott Brander, 26, the local grocery store manger." The man on table's chest was ripped opened. Dean grimaced and Sam cringed in revoltion.

"You think this is bad," The corner said, "You should see what some of the other looks like. You could barely recognize them."

"And hearts were missing from all of the bodies?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," The corner replied.

"And where was he found?" Sam asked.

"Outside of the grocery store," The corner answered, "Can't believe no one's saw it, now that this thing's gotten into town."

"The other attacks, they weren't in town?" Sam asked.

"Just the last three," The corner said, " The first two were in the woods and one was a hitchhiker on the side of the road." Then the corner added, "You're asking the exact same questions that lady agent asked."

That took the boys by surprise. They both simultaneously turned at the corner and asked, "Lady agent?"

"Yeah, real pretty an old pantsuit that probably went out of style five years ago, though I'm not expert on the subject," The corner said, "She dropped in about an hour before you guys, asked all the same questions. Didn't she tell you any of this?"

Taking a moment to think Dean gave the least ridiculous story he could think of. "Yeah, well," He began awkwardly, "No one told us there was another agent assigned to this case. Must be some sort buricarctic mix-up. We should probably call our boss and see what's going on here. You didn't happen to get this agent's name did you? You know, so we have some clue to find her."

"Mercy Smith," The corner answered, "I remember because Mercy isn't exactly a name you hear now-a-days."

"Well," Dean said, "Thank you for your help. We're gonna go, see what's going on here. "

"Alright," The corner said, awkwardly, "Good luck."

"Thank you," Dean said again, as he and Sam walked towards the door.

"So, what, there's another hunter on the case?" Sam asked once they were out of the building.

"You got any better explanation?" Dean responded," Why would actual F.B.I agents be investigating this?"

"Well, should we try to find her?" Sam asked.

"I don't know how," Dean said, "I mean odds are 'Mercy Smith' is probably an alias. At least the Smith part. "

"We could call Bobby, see if he knows her," Sam suggested.

"All right, it's worth a shot," Dean said, pulling out his cell phone and dialing the number.

The tone rang for a minute then Dean heard Bobby's voice on the other end of the line. "What?"

"Hey Bobby," Dean began, "Me and Sam, we're working this case in Michigan, and it looks like there might be another hunter, a woman, goes by the name, Mercy Smith, or at least the alias of it."

Bobby though for a minute then said, "I don't know anybody by that name, but like you said, that could be an alias. What's she look like?"

"Ah, well, we haven't actually seen her," Dean began, "But the corner mentioned that she was wearing an old pants suit, a couple of years out of style."

"Well, that narrows it down," Bobby said scarcasicly. Dean could swear he heard his eyes roll. "If I had a dime for every lady hunter who had an out-dated pants suit, I could buy them all new ones."

"Why would you-"" Dean began.

"I'm using a fake sanario to make a point, ya idjit!" Bobby exclaimed, " They can't just get into a police station by flirting. They have to look like honest to God cops, too. Look if you get any more information, call me." Now he kind of wanted to know who she was.

"Alright, I'll do that," Dean replied.

And with the pair hung up. Sam and Dean looked at each other. "Well?" Sam asked

"He's got no clue who this chick is either," Dean said, as they started walking again he continued, "Look, we just work this like any other job, if we run into her, maybe we can all work together, if we don't, well, maybe we get lucky and she'll kill thing for us, and we won't have to."

About fifteen Sam and Dean were lording over a computer at the local library, doing more research on the attacks. "Okay, this is weird," Sam said, looking at what he had just discovered.

"What? What is it?" Dean asked, leaning in.

"It's looks like this isn't the first time this town has had a rash of unexplained animal attacks. In the towns a hundred and twenty year history I'm looking at least ten attacks that could be a werewolf."

"At least?!" Dean exclaimed, leaning in even more, not noticing that he was crowding Sam, "And no's one killed it yet?!"

That statement got the attention of several nearby users of the library.

"He doesn't get out much," Was all Sam could think to say to explain his brother's macabre outburst. Then he turned to said brother and said in a much softer tone, "Maybe it's more than one werewolf over time. But another thing is, most of these incidents seem to be either in or around the forest."

"So, where do we start?" Dean asked, "I mean, it's a big forest. Like it practically surrounds the entire town and goes on for like fifty miles in any direction."

"Well..." Sam's voice trailed off as he thought of a solution. "Well, maybe start off at the sight of the fist new attacks. You know, those two hikers who were splattered all over the trail?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what the corner was talking about when he said you couldn't recognize them." Dean commented. They had managed to find some non-blurred pictures the police didn't give to the press. The couple's limbs were spread out for over two miles, the entire area stained red with blood. And the hearts were never recovered. "Wouldn't surprise me if they missed something." Then, standing up, he said, "Come on, let's go."

About thirty minutes later, they were at the spot on trail where the hikers had been found. All the parts and entrails had been removed and taken to the morgue, but the spot was still stained red. Even after they reopened no one had been on the trail since. "Are we completely sure this is a werewolf?" Sam asked, "I mean, they don't make the cleanest kills but they usually don't make this...much mess."

"Well, maybe it is something else," Dean said, surveying the blood scene himself, "But what?"

The pair walked on opposite sides of the blood soaked area, looking for any sort of clue. After a minute or so, Dean called back , "Hey, Sam, you find anything?!"

"No," Sam called back. Just then there was a rustling in through the trees. "Dean!" Sam called out, pulling out his gun, "You might want to get over here! Something just moved!" By that time he had his gun up and pointed it at whatever was moving. Then a small head popped out from behind one of the trees. A head that looked like it belonged to a girl who couldn't be more than fourteen at the most, with light blonde hair and big blue eyes. Sam lowered his gun. "It's okay," He said gently, "I'm not gonna hurt you."

The girl stepped out from behind the tree. She was small, skinny, wearing a yoke yellow dress with a matching sweater over it. Just then Dean finally showed up. He looked at the strange girl with a confused look on his face and exclaimed, "Who the Hell is that?"

"That's a good question," Sam said, "Little girl, you got a name?"

Instead of answering, the girl did something very odd. She sniffed the air, then let out an almost animal-like growl at the two men, then turned around and ran off.

"Hey!" Sam shouted as he started running after the girl. But somehow the girl managed to be faster them him and soon was just a small speck. It seemed the nano-second he got any speed on her she got even faster. _"How can a kid as small as her run this fast?" _ He thought as he ran after the ever-faster girl. Soon after that she disappeared completely. His quarry gone Sam turned to Dean, only to find his brother was no longer running with him. "Dean?!" He called out, but no one replied. _"We must have got separated during the chase." _ He thought to himself. He looked around and realized the chase had taken him very deep in the woods. So deep he had absolutely no idea where he was.

"Oh, boy," Sam said, looking around, "I'm in trouble."


	3. Chapter 3

Sam figured he was still standing in about the direction he came from so he decided to go back that way. His hope was to eventually and find the trail again. But so far all he managed to find was more unbeaten path, cover with forest under growth and stumps and bushes. He tripped over a rock and hit his head on a tree branch on the way down. As he righted himself, he rubbed the aching part on his head. At least it hadn't broken the skin, though he could feel a goose egg coming up.

But as the pointier of the branches and the odd thorn tore at him, Sam did acquire a few scarps. Fortunately most of his body was covered, so his hands and face mainly received the small injuries. But soon minutes of being lost turned to hours. After some time Sam found the he was talking to himself. "I can't believe this," He murmured, "Spent my whole life training and fighting and somehow I manage to get lost in the woods. After being outran by a little girl?!" After a moment, Sam looked around, then added, "And now I'm talking to myself. " At that point would think that he would stop his ramblings but instead he kept on as he would through the woods going who-knows-where, "That's it, I've lost it. I've officially lost my mind. And I'm lost in the woods. I've insane and I'm lost in the woods!"

As the sun started to set him rambling go darker. "This is it," Sam said to himself, "I'm going to die here. I got my soul back just in time to die. Again! I manage to survive who knows how many ghost and monsters and demons, and this is how it ends, dying of expose in a freaking' forest!" It did sound to Sam like the very ironic punch line of a bad joke. At last he spread his arms out wide and called, "Come on, forest! Come on and just eat me now!" At the moment he felt a hand on his arm and her a woman in a chuckling voice say, " I wouldn't do that just yet."

He whirled around in saw a thin, paled-skinned woman with dark brown hair, wearing and old denim jacket over a red-and-black checkered shirt looking at him. "You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah," Sam said, "I'm just...really lost."

"Well," The woman began," I happen to know the way back to town."

At that point Sam remembered that he wasn't the only one who might be lost. "But I also need to find my brother," He told the woman, "We were both on one of the trails and we got separated. For all I know he could be lost, too, hurt even."

"I didn't see any signs of anyone else," The woman said, "Look, you're hurt, so why don't we just head back to my card, I'll take a closer look at that goose egg on your head and check for a concussion, and then we'll figure out a plan for your brother."

Sam though for a second then accepting that it was reasonable plan said, "Alright, that'll work. I'm Sam, by the way." He extended his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Sam," The woman said, shaking his hand, "I'm Mercy."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note : Well, actually this is more of a disclaimer, because I keep forgetting to put one. (Though I'm usually better on this.) I do not own **_**Supernatural. **_**I just love the show, and love to right stories about it. **

While Sam and Dean had decided to start at the first crime scene, Mercy had decided to start at the most recent crime scene as it was the freshest. After some searching, she was able to fine the trail of the werewolf. Grabbing a few essentials, a gun loaded with silver bullets , a knife made of the same metal as the bullets, and a flask of holy water just in case there was anything unexpected, and putting them in a leather satchel, she followed the trail past the store, out of town and into the forest. In addition to being a hunter she was also a trained survivalist, so she was able to make her was very skillfully through the unbeaten part of the dense woods. As she continued on things started to get strange, well, stranger than usual. If what the evidence was telling her was true, the werewolf had been met by four, maybe five werewolves. This was odd due the fact that despite misinformation printed in some cheap teen romance novels werewolves did not travel in packs. Oh, sure every now and again you'd find a couple in the same place, but not on this scale. After the peculiarity of it worn off it struck her that this was extremely dangerous. They could rip the entire town to shreds. Add that with the fact that werewolves had started changing ahead of schedule lately, this whole situation was a powder keg waiting to explode. _"What did I just step into?" _ She thought. It was then that she heard the sound of someone-an unusually large someone by the sound of it-stumbling through the woods, a few feet away from her. She sheathed towards the sound and peaked through the trees to see who or what was making it, one hand on the gun in her bag. It appeared to be an abnormally tall and broad-shouldered young man in blue coat, murmuring to himself about this being the end. _"He looks sort of familiar," _ She thought and then it her. He was the guy at the gas station who was with the hunter. Which meant he was most likely a hunter, too. Yes, he was, definitely.

And with that revelation, the situation became even more complicated. She couldn't come to his aid without reveling her presence to him and his companion, which is the one thing she did _not _ want to. She knew too well the can of worms it could open up. How could she forget? _ "You'll just gonna have to leave him," _ She told herself.

But as she turned around to walk away a small voice inside her said, _"No, you can't."_

_"You don't have a choice," _ Another voice said. Both of them were her voice in her head, but they were still different.

_"He's so deep in the forest, if you leave him here he'll never find his way out," _ The first voice said.

_"What concern is that of yours?" _ The second voice snapped back.

_"If you leave him here he'll die," _The first voice reasoned, _"For exposure, or dehydration or starvation or being attacked by a werewolf. Do you want that on your conscience?" _ Now frozen her place, that small voice for somewhere deep inside her, that part that wasn't case-harden, made one last plea. _"When's the last time you gave your name a try?"_

That did it. Mercy twirled around and headed back in the direction of the young man. She was just about to call out to him when he spread his arms out and shouted , "Come on, forest! Come on and just eat me!"

She couldn't help but laugh, as she reach out to get his attention, saying, "I wouldn't do that just yet."

And now, here they were, staring at each other, his hazel brown eyes wide with surprise at the sound of her name. Then he smiled slightly and said, "Nice to meet you agent Smith."

Mercy thought maybe she could still play dumb. "I have no clue who that is."

"Actually, I think you do," Sam replied, "I gotta admit, that alias is probably better than ours. I mean, God help us if the cops ever know their rock bands. Not, that He's helped out in the past."

Mercy realized it was probably best to just surrender. "You, too, hunh?"

"Yeah," Sam replied, "Me too. My brother, too."

"Let me guess you think it's werewolves, too?" Mercy asked.

"Yeah," Sam said," So, how's the case been going for you?"

"Ah, can we get going while we compare notes?" Mercy asked, "It's gonna be dark out, soon." As she started walking and she added, "And by the way, my last name isn't Smith. It's Briggs."

"Well, Mercy Briggs," Sam began, "Lead the way."

"I was at grocery store where the last attack happened," Mercy said as they walked, "I was able to follow the trail back to here. That's where I found you. It looked like you needed the help."

"Yeah," Sam said, "Thanks for that."

"Don't mention it," Mercy said, "But then things get weird. When I was following the trail it looked like we might be dealing with multiple werewolves, like four of five."

"How'd you figure that out?" Sam asked.

"The trail they left," Mercy explained, "You know, broken twigs, footprints, the sheer number of footprints."

"If you're right that there's a whole pack of werewolves..." Sam trailed off.

"Yeah," Mercy said, We could be looking at a blood bath. Well, sixteen deaths at least plus those three missing people, it's already a blood bath."

"It might be more than sixteen," Sam commented.

"Pardon me?" Mercy replied.

"You're not the only one who found something weird and unnerving," Sam said, "Me and Dean, my brother, we did some research at the library and found like, ten different attacks that could be werewolves attacks in the last hundred or so years." Just then something else hit Sam. "Oh, God..."

"What?" Mercy said, "You just thought of something, what is it?"

"We were looking at the first crime scene, William's Trail," Sam began, "When we were on it we found this girl, she couldn't have been thirteen years old. We approached her and she...it looked like she was sniffing the air, maybe, then she growled at us and ran in the other direction. We chased her, but somehow she was faster than us, and she got away."

"You're thinking she might be a werewolf now?" Mercy asked.

"That's exactly what I think," Same replied.

Mercy stopped let out a deep breath.

"Are you alright?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, it's just..." Mercy voice trailed off a moment, then she said, "There's something bigger going on, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Sam said, "Maybe," Though there was a picture forming in Sam's mind and he did _not _like it at all. "But at least we have some numbers now."

"What's that suppose to-"Mercy began, then realized what he meant. She turned a around as she said, "Hold on, did you think we were working this case together?"

"Well, " Sam began, ""As long as we're all here-"

"No!" Mercy interrupted bluntly, "No offense, I don't really work well with other hunters. In fact you're the first one I've had contact with in five years." And with that she started walking again.

"But," Sam began, caching up with her, "You said yourself there's something bigger here. And there's strength in numbers-"

"All right!" Mercy snapped, "I'll work the case with you two!"

They walked the rest of the way in near-complete silence, out of the woods and back to the grocery store where Mercy's truck still sat. "You wouldn't happen to have a phone, do you?" Sam asked, "I left mine back in our car, maybe Dean's in cell phone range."

Mercy stepped in the cab, opened the glove box and rummaged through it. At least she pulled out a burner and toss to it Sam, who was a few inches away from her. "Knock yourself out." Then, pulling out, a first aid kit, said, "And take a seat. Like I said, I wanna look at that bump."

Sam got into the passenger seat and dialed Dean's number. Then when he got the voice mail, left a quick message then tried his other number. Then his other, other number. Then at last he tried Dean's last cell phone number and got something. "Sam?!" Dean's voice came from the other end of the line.

"Yeah, it's me," Sam confirmed.

"Where are you?!" Dean demanded, "I've been looking all over the place for you. I was actually on my way to actually go to the police for help! The _police _ Sam!"

"I got lost in the woods," Sam began.

"Well, I already knew that," Dean retorted, "I almost got myself lost trying to find you."

"You know that other hunter that was on the case?" Sam asked.

"Yeah?" Dean relied, half-question, half-statement.

"Well, she found me, got me back to town," Sam explained, "We're out in front of the grocery store, the one were Scott Brander was killed."

"Alright, just stay there, I'll meet you," Dean said, then hung up.

"So?" Mercy asked.

"He said to wait here, he'll come to us," Sam said.

"Good," Mercy said, "Now one more thing." She held out one finger in from of Sam. "Try to follow my finger with your eyes."

"Okay," Sam said, following the finger, "Why?"

"Just checking for concussion," Mercy said. After doing the finger thing a couple of time she said, "Yeah, pretty sure your good." Dean say how long he was gonna be?"

"No," Sam said.

"Well, we could use the help," Mercy noted. Then she pulled a tube of ointment and some bandages and started nursing what Sam now noticed was burned on her right hand.

"What happened to your hand?" Sam asked.

"Had a bit of car trouble on the way into town," Mercy replied, "I burnt it on the engine."

After a couple of moments of silence Mercy said out of the blue, "Hey, you hungry?"

"Yeah," Sam said, realizing that in fact he was, "A little bit, actually."

"I think I got something in the glove box," Mercy said leaning over and pulling out a purple bag. She handed it to Sam who unzipped it and looked in. There was some crackers, a _zip-lock _bag of dried fruit, and several wrapped things that were possibly meat. "Are those pig ears?" Sam asked eyeing some wax paper wrapped triangle.

"Yeah," Mercy admitted, a hint of nervousness in her voice, "I know, it's probably not a good idea to keep raw meat in a glove box but-" She shrugged, "Got nowhere else to put it, 'cause I go weapons everywhere else, and hey, the bag's got freezer packs in it."

"Well," Sam said, not really knowing what to say on the odd discovery, " That works, I guess." He then took out the bag of dried fruit and offered the both bags to Mercy.

Mercy took out two dried pineapple slices, then started rubbing though the purple bag, then after a moment's thinking pulled out the thing of crackers. "You mind putting it up?" Mercy asked.

"Of course not," Sam said, then trying to be helpful and grabbing the first aid kit as well. He put both back in their place and was about to close the glove box when a photograph fell on his lap. He picked it up and looked at it. It was picture of Mercy in the arms of a man in his early thirties, with sharp, clean features, black hair with brown mixed in, and hazel eyes. Sam noticed that in the picture there a certain sparkle in Mercy's eyes that wasn't there now. "Who's this?" Sam asked, handing the picture over to her, "You know, if you don't mind me asking."

Mercy paused a minute, twisting the onyx ring on her right hand. What right did he have to be asking about this? Really, they were complete strangers, the gall. And it hurt so much to even think about it. And she thought about it at least once a day. _"Well, don't tell him the whole story," _ She thought, _"Just give him the broad strokes." _ Mercy took a deep breath. "His name was Thomas," She began, "He was...my hunting partner. "

"I thought you didn't work well with other hunters," Sam said. He wasn't digging for information or anything, he knew he had probably asked too much already. Here he was, a complete stranger asking her personal questions. Besides, he knew hunters weren't exactly the sharing type. The comment was just making an observation.

"He's the reason for that," Mercy murmured, in a low voice where Sam couldn't make out what she was saying.

"Excuse me?" Sam, leaning in.

"That wasn't something you were suppose to hear," Mercy said in a clam, but strained voice.

"Sorry," Sam said leaning back.

They were quiet for a minute, Mercy staring at the picture. Then Sam spoke. "I'm sorry I asked about the photo, I should've known better."

"No, it's alright," Mercy said sincerely, "I mean, you're curious I get that." After a moment, she added, bothered by the way Sam had put something, "What did you mean you should've known better?"

"Well," Sam began, somewhat awkwardly, "You don't really know me, and that picture was probably in the glove box for a reason and here I am, this total stranger, pointing my ridiculously pointy nose in it. "

Mercy laughed at loud.

Just as they finished their meal of dried fruit and crackers, a black Impala drived onto to the parking lot and parked one spot away from them. By that point the sun had almost set and they were the only two cars on the lot. Of course that might have to with the fact that it was still a crime scene. "Well," Sam started, "That's Dean."

They got out of the tuck at the same time Dean got out of the car. They all looked at each other then Sam said, "Dean, this is Mercy Briggs, Mercy, this is my brother, Dean."

Mercy extended her hand. Dean took shook it, saying, "Well, you're just about the prettiest hunter I've ever met." She was noticeably good-looking. Her body seemed to work in perfectly harmony, her very pale skin bringing out her dark brown hair, and her dark brown hair in turn not only bringing out her radiant light blue eyes, but also framing her face, as circular as the full moon itself.

"Thanks," Mercy said, then got right down to business, "So Sam tells me you're here about the werewolf attacks?"

"Yeah," Dean replied, "You, too?"

"Yeah," Mercy and confirmed, "And me and Sam were comparing notes and..." Mercy's voice trailed off for a moment or so, then she said, "We got trouble, right here in River City."

"Like more so than usual?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Sam said, "More so than usual."

When Sam and Mercy had finished telling Dean what they had discovered, he leaned back on the Impala, processing it. "This," He said at last, "This doesn't make any sense."

"I don't discount anything anymore," Mercy said, "I don't know about you guys but for the last year or so I've been encountering monsters that aren't working under their usual MO. Hell, I've come up against a couple of things I've never even heard of before."

Dean and Sam exchanged glances.

"Yeah," Sam said, "We've been having problems with that, too."

Something told Mercy they were holding something back. "What aren't you telling me?" She asked, bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Dean responded, his eyebrows slightly raised.

"I know you're holding something back," Mercy said, "It's written all over your mugs."

Sam and Dean looked at each other silently and they knew what each other was wanting to discuss; whether or not they should talk to mercy about the mother of all monsters, Eve. They weren't even sure what she was themselves. Still, if she had anything to know with what was happening here, they should at least warm Mercy. She could handle it.

"We think all the odd stuff that's been going on has to do with this creature called the Mother Of All." Sam explained.

"Mother of all what?" Mercy asked.

"Monsters, maybe," Sam said, sounding rather unsure.

"There's actually a mother of all monsters?" Mercy asked.

"We're not exactly sure what she is," Dean said, "What we do know is, she's important enough to all thing hairy and slimy out there in the world that they would even risk pissing off an archangel to bust her out of Purgatory."

"Purgatory?" Mercy inquired.

"Basically it's monster Heaven," Dean explained.

The boys could swear they saw Mercy shiver. "And this Mother Of All," Mercy said, "You think could have something to do with what's going on here?"

"Yeah, maybe," Dean said.

"And there's another possibility," Sam said towards his brother.

Dean looked at Sam for a second and realized what he was hinting towards. Dean then leaned back his head, let out a big sigh and said to Sam "So now you're telling me that we are dealing with another Norman Bates who misses his mommy. "

Mercy held up her hand to interrupt the conversation between the two and asked with obvious curiosity " Can you two hold on and tell me what the Hell were dealing with here?"

Sam looked at the huntress and said "It means we are dealing with an Alpha."


	5. Chapter 5

" Um, Sam can you do me a solid and tell me what in the world is an Alpha?" asked Mercy.

"Monsters have existed throughout history, but they had to have started somewhere and an Alpha is that beginning of a race of monsters that we know and fight today." Sam explained.

"So that means were dealing with-" Mercy was saying before being interrupted by Dean.

"That's right, we are looking for the first of the werewolf race." Dean confirmed.

Mercy pulled out her pistol and said to the brothers "Ok, then I suggest that we track down this Alpha and kill him just like any other werewolf, we shoot him in heart with a silver bullet."

Mercy cocked he handgun and looked at the brothers, whom appeared to have worried looks on their faces. She then said to them "What's wrong with that plan? That is the usual procedure for hunting down a werewolf right?

"Yes but this isn't an ordinary werewolf and so the normal rules no longer apply." Sam said.

"Okay, so how do we kill it?" Mercy asked.

"As far we know," Dean began, "Nothing can hurt them, so we're boned. But we're hunters so we can't just quit a job, can we?"

Mercy remembered thinking a similar thing that morning. "No," She agreed, "We can't. So, now what do we do?"

Once again everyone was quiet. What could they do? "Well, could try researching it," Sam suggested it at last.

Mercy and Dean turned and stare at them. "Researching it?" Mercy demanded, "Really? We can't exactly Goggle this."

"We could try accent texts," Sam suggested, "Something that actually makes references to Alphas."

"And where would we fine these ancient texts?" Dean asked.

"I think I might have something," Mercy admitted, "I got this book on monsters from 16th Century or sometime around that, I'm really not sure. It's actually come in handy a few times."

"Wow," Dean said, "Where'd you get your hand on something like that?"

"It was a... friend of mine's," Mercy said, awkwardly, "It actually belonged to an acquaintance of his but he never got the chance to return it, and I didn't know that guy, so..." Her voice trailed off.

Sam wondered if the friend of was Thomas. He had already assumed Thomas was probably dead, so it would make sense. Whoever it belonged to, she was clearly uncomfortable talking about it. "We should probably find somewhere else to finish this conversation." Sam said, trying to give her a break by changing the subject.

"Yeah," Dean said, "Hey, Mercy, you wouldn't happen to be staying at the _Talbot _would you? "

Mercy looked confused a minute.

"You know, that only motel in town," Dean said.

"Oh, I don't usual rent rooms," Mercy said, "I usually just sleep in the truck. " Her voice trailed off for a moment then she said, "I think I know where the place is, though."

Fifteen minutes later the Sam and Mercy were peering over an old leather-bound book, while Dean tried to get in touch with Bobby to inform him of the recent turn of events.

"Well," Sam began, "So far we've managed to find everything from shape shifters to ghouls but no Alphas."

"Sorry this was such a bust," Mercy said.

"Hey, it's not your fault," Sam told her reassuringly, "And we'll find a way."

While they were talking, Bobby finally answered Dean's call. "You find your lady hunter yet?" He asked.

"Yeah, actually, we did, but," Dean began, "Turns out we might have a big problem here. Let me put you on speaker phone."

Dean hit the speaker button and laid the phone down on the bed.

"What's so important the you had to make this a conference call?" Bobby asked.

"Well, first off," Dean begin, "Me and Sam were doing some research in the local library in it turns out over the last hundred or so years they have been ten attacks that might be werewolves before the sixteen this year."

"And then were at the first scene and came across the this girl," Sam added in, "She sniffed the air, growled at us and ran off. Actually that's how we met Mercy. She told me she thinks we're dealing with more than one wolf, like about five she said."

"Five?" Bobby repeated, surprised.

"Yeah," Mercy spoke up at last, "I was able to track the wolf's trail from last night back to woods, looks like once he was firmly in the woods he or she was met by four or maybe even five others."

"Wait, a second," Dean said, "How'd you get all that?"

"Tracks,' Mercy offered in explanation, "Broken twigs on the ground, disturbed debris, things like that."

"Who are you?" Bobby exclaimed from the other end of the line, perplexed by this strange woman.

"Mercy Briggs, at you service," Mercy answered, somewhat cheeky.

"Anyway," Dean said, taking back control of the conversation, "Bobby we think we might have the Werewolf Alpha on our hands."

Bobby was silent for a moment. "Dean, are you sure?" He asked at last.

" Pretty much," Dean replied, "The more we look the more likely it appears. We're looking on our end for a way to gank it, but you think you could do some digging?"

"Yeah, " Bobby said, still kind of processing the information. After a second, she added, "Before I go, one more thing. Mercy, isn't it?"

Mercy looked surprised for a moment. "Are you talking to me?"

"Yeah," Bobby replied, " I can't seem to place it, but sound sort of familiar." Bobby thought for a minute. He thought that maybe she could be that girl who had been with it, but, no, it couldn't be...could it? "You wouldn't have happened to know a Thomas Gilbert? The last time I ever saw the poor son of a bitch he had a girl with him, I think he called her Mercy once. Timid little thing, barely spoke, 'cepect to warn Thomas there was a ghoul sneaking up behind him. And I still didn't back that book he borrowed from me."

Mercy's eyes widened and she looked visibly scared. She thought she knew the incident he was talking about. They were dealing with the ghoul in Arizona, and had run into another hurter a older man with a beard wearing a baseball cap. Mercy and Thomas tried to avoid other hunters at all times, but the three of them were in the graveyard staring at a couple of ghouls ripping into a freshly exhumed body. There was nothing they could do except blow the things away and split before anyone could ask any questions. The whole thing happened so fast it was a wonder the old man even remembered. "No," Mercy said, quickly, a bit of her fear showing through, "I'm sorry, you must have me mistaken with someone else."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Bobby admitted, then hung up.

Dean and Sam both looked at Mercy. "Okay, what was that all about?" Dean asked.

"What was what about?" Mercy responded, regaining her composure.

"When Bobby mentioned this Thomas Gilbert guy you got the full on deer in the headlight look," Dean replied.

"And you just probably just lied to Bobby about him," Sam added.

Dean turned to Sam with a questioning look and asked, "What makes you say that?"

Sam just sat there, looking for a way out without breaking Mercy's trust.

"Because he found a picture of Thomas in my glove box," Mercy replied, freeing Sam of his burden.

"So you do know the guy?" Dean responded, half-question, half-statement.

"Yes," Mercy said at last, "Like I told Sam he was my hunting partner, but he was more than that, he was my mentor, and..." Her voice trailed off. When she found her voice again she said, "My lover. I know it sounds cliché, but the only man I've ever loved, in fact. I have a hard time even thinking about him even now."

That confirm the men's suspicions. "Mercy," Sam said after a moment, "I'm so sorry."

"Thomas knew the risks," Mercy said, "He knew he could die." After a second or so she got off the bed and said, "I need some air."

"Sure, go ahead," Dean said, as she walked out.

Mercy shut the door behind her and leaned against the wall. A flood of emotions and memories were coming back to her, all at once. She couldn't help thinking about that horrible day. She remembered how she begged Thomas to just get and the car and they could go. Remembered how scared she was waiting in the car, and when she heard the first bullets go off, and that she got sick to her stomach, she knew it was bad. She remembered finding Thomas was on the ground , his chest all bloody. Remembered how it felt like everything was going in slow motion as she felt to his side, begging him to stay with her. She remembered as clear the day the light leaving his eyes as he died in her arms.

Mercy breathed back a cry. She didn't like thinking of him that way. She did her best to try to remember the best things about him. His courage how clever he was, his kind smile, the way hit felt when he put his arms around her to teach her to use a gun. But still memories of that horrible, horrible days, the worst day of her life, still bled through. The day he died for her.

Mercy was so distracted, she didn't hear the large animal sneaking upon her. At least into it leaped and threw her to the grown, and she was starting into the yellow, animalistic eyes of a werewolf.


	6. Chapter 6

"Sam! Dean!" Mercy called out, struggling to get her knife from her side on instinct alone. Besides, she doubted the werewolf Alpha did his own dirty work.

Sam, and Dean ran outside and saw a huge male werewolf standing over Mercy, opening mouth to rip her to shreds. Sam and Dean were about to shoot it when it pulled back looking almost as if he was studying Mercy. It turned it said and let out several low growls and six more werewolves stepped out from the shadows.

"Dean," Sam said in a shocked voice, staring directly at one of the werewolves.

Dean looked at the one Sam was looking at and saw that it was the girl from the forest. She looked a lot less innocent with clawed hands and fangs. The werewolf beside her, another female but much older, leaped into the air and was about to land on Dean when he shot her five times in the heart. She fell to the ground, in her human form and dead.

At the point the remaining werewolves, six in all counting the one who attacked Mercy, leaped upon Sam and Dean. They emptied their guns into the pack, but the pack still backed Dean and Sam into a corner. A lean male was about ripped into Sam when Mercy, free from the giant werewolf's hold, leaped into the fray, held the lean werewolf down and trussed her knife so far into his back it came out the other side.

Scared, the rest of the back away, growling. Using the opportunity to reload their guns, Sam and Dean stepped out from the corner they had been backed into on the sidewalk. With all of them wounded and two of their number dead, the werewolves retreated before the three hunters could get another shot off. Soon they had disappeared into the darkness.

"You alright, Mercy?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Mercy said, "You?"

"Fine," Sam answered, "Thanks. Again."

"Yeah, now that I think about it," Mercy said, knife ready, on the alert, "that is the second time I've saved you in a 24 hour period. Dean, what about you?"

"Yeah," Dean said, "I'm okay. So, I guess the Alpha knows we're on his trail."

"What do we do now?" Mercy asked on high-alert.

"Well, we can't stay here," Dean said, "We get our gear and head out, where exactly I don't know."

After gathering their gear, the three got and the Impala and started driving around.

"So ," Dean said, after a little bit, "How are we gonna handle this?"

"Well, if we go back to the motel we might be able to follow the blood trail left by the injured werewolves," Mercy said, "But we're not prepared to take on the Alpha."

"It wouldn't hurt to maybe scope it out though," Sam suggest, "Try to see what their operations, what kind of defenses they have."

"Yeah, but they'll smell us from a mile away," Mercy countered.

They were all quiet for a moment. "So Dean," Mercy said at last, "Any ideas from you?"

"You really think you could follow that that trail?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Mercy said, "I think I can."

"Then I think we should chance it," Dean said," 'Cause it's either that, or drive around all night and wait for them to strike again."

They all decided chancing it was the better option.

Soon after they found themselves in the wood, following an ever-shrinking trail of blood by the glow of flashlights. The trail started and waning and then disappeared completely in the dense undergrowth of the forest. "Well, this was a bust," Dean said, as the sun began to rise over the horizon.

"Maybe not," Mercy said, cryptically.

"What does that mean?" Dean asked. But before the words even got out of his mouth Mercy was running through the woods, following an invisible trail. Not knowing what else to do, the brothers ran to catch up with her.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sam asked after a few minutes of running.

"Wherever this thing takes me," Mercy replied.

"And this thing is?" Dean asked.

Mercy didn't answer just kept running after whatever it was she was running after, for several more minutes then she came to quick and unexpected stop, looking up, her mouth agape. The boys saw what she was looking at and realized why imeditly.

There in the middle of the forest was a huge two-story house made of grey stone. The whole area around it had been cleared, leaving a circle of grass where dense trees should be. Then Mercy noticed something truly disturbing.

"Guys," Mercy breathed, pointing to window on the upper level, "Look."

Hanging of the window was the bloody corpse of a deer, it's blood dripping down staining the side of the house with red.

"I'm gonna go off on the limb and say this is where the Alpha is based," Sam said.

"And his entourage," Dan added.

"Okay, we need to get back to the trees," Mercy said, then turning around added, "Now!" And the three fled back to the safety of the forest.

"Do you think they saw us?" Sam asked, catching his breath when they were far enough away.

"If they did we'd be kibble my now," Dean reasoned, "They're probably all sleeping after a long night's work."

"Or coming up with another plan of attack," Mercy said.

"Yeah, or that," Dean conceived, adding scarcastcily "Way to think positive, Mercy."

"I think now we know why this place is such a werewolf hotspot," Sam said.

"Yeah but...what was with that deer hanging out the window for everyone to see?" Dean asked, a tone of disgust in his voice, "That's just-nasty, man."

"Maybe it was dinner," Sam suggested, "I mean, they can't eat human hearts all the time without drawing attention."

"It doesn't work that way," Mercy said, firmly, "Werewolves don't just go back to forcing down animal hears once they taste human hearts. Once they cross that line, there's no going back."

Something in the way she said made Sam and Dean wonder exactly how she got into the life. Had she lost someone to a werewolf?

"Well, it doesn't really matter, anyway," Dean said, "What matters is, we need to figure out how to get in there, and get the job the done."

"Dude, you saw that place, it was built like a fortress," Sam said, "And you can see everything coming at you for a good two miles. We're not getting in there. Or at least not sneaking in."

"Well, then we charge the place," Dean replied, "At least we'd have the element of surprise on our side, because they wouldn't expect three people to charge a fortress with at least five normal, if ancient, werewolves possibly more, and the Werewolf Alpha," Dean started to sound unsure of himself as he finished, "Because we'd be slaughtered on sight. Okay, surprise is out the window."

"I have an idea," Mercy spoke up, "But you're not gonna like it."

"At this, point I'm up for anything," Dean said.

"Yeah, me, too," Sam agreed, "So what's the plan?"

That evening, as the sun set, Sam and Dean crept through the forest, guns at the ready, eyeing Mercy as she walked the border between the regular woods and the clearing, faking a limp.

"Dude, this is such a stupid plan," Dean whispered, harshly.

"You were the one who said you were up for anything," Sam reminded him.

"Yeah but using one of us as a bait and just hoping they show up where we can take them out?" Dean exclaimed in a whisper, "There are so many ways this could go wrong."

"If you have a better plan, I'm all ears," Sam challenged.

"Will you lunatics hush up?" Mercy snapped in a whisper, turning to where she knew they were positioned. Then she started limping across the border, this time shouting out, "Help! Somebody Please help me! I'm hurt, and I'm lost," Then after a moment, she added, "Is anybody out here?!"

At that moment as if on a cue, a huge shadow casted over her. Dean and Sam were about to fire when Mercy held out her hand, signaling for them to wait.

The man before her was human, granted he was a mountain of a man. He was very tall, maybe even taller than Sam, which was hard to do, and was very muscular, like body builder level muscular, thick in the neck and broad-shouldered. His sleeves were rolled up slightly reveling that his long arms were coded in raven black hair. The color of the long tick hair on his head, which he had back in a ponytail. The same color as his bushy eyebrows. The man was starting to look very familiar.

_"The werewolf that attacked me last night," _ She though.

As if reading her mine, the werewolf said, "Hello again."

"So," Mercy said, going for her gun which was strapped to her back, refusing to show him any fear, "Why aren't you in your Werewolf form?"

"It's not the right time for that," He said, "After all, we have much too talk about." He paused a moment before adding, "My child."

Mercy paused a moment, pulled out her gun, pointed it at him, and said, "I take it that means you're the Werewolf Alpha."

The Alpha chuckled. "If I am, you know that won't work."

At that point Sam and Dean had run from their position and halted just a few feet away from her.

"Ah," The Alpha said, calmly, "I see you brought your friends with you. Well," The Alpha snapped his fingers, "I prepared for that." Suddenly there were a dozen pairs of yellow, animal-like eyes peering down at them. The attack took a rather odd turn from there, as the broke into two groups of six and leap _past _Mercy and the Werewolf Alpha, and went at Sam and Dean, who backed up, shooting into the mass. Mercy turned and started to shoot at the werewolves, when she felt the Alpha's outsized hand knock the gun out of her grasp with such force it brought Mercy to the ground as well, then another knock on the head, knocking her out cold. The Werewolf Alpha scooped up the unconious woman, threw her over his shoulder, and walked back toward the fortress and all the brothers could do was helplessly watched as they fought for their lives.


	7. Chapter 7

"Dean!" Sam called out, seeing what was happening.

"I know!" Dean shouted back, "But we got problems of our own!"

The werewolves ran and lunged at the two, who were barely able to keep the beasts off them. Dean managed to get a shot off that hit one of them in the heart, causing to fall to the ground, dead, her amber hair flung everywhere. In response, another lunged at Dean, toppling him to the ground. Dean stabbed him, at least it looked like a him, in the shoulder, with a sliver knife, causing it to leap back in pain and retreat. Sam slashed at the little blonde girl werewolf. She let out a whimper and fell back. The leader of the group let out several low growls and the remaining werewolves doubled their efforts, chasing after the brothers, who were now mainly just trying to get away. The werewolves surrounded them in a circle.

"Any ideas?" Sam asked.

"Not really," Dean said.

The leader jumped in the air and was about to land on one of them when they both fired repeatedly into the monster's chest. The werewolves were silent, not sure what to do now that their leader was gone. Then they decided just to go for a mass pounce.

Sam and Dean emptied their bullets into the crowd. Several were killed instantly and rest pulled back. In the chaos Sam and Dean managed to get away. But instead of running out of the woods as fast as they could they ran back _towards _the mansion, to rescue their trapped friend.

"What do you thinks up with the snatch-and grab?" Sam asked as they crept back through the woods.

"Don't know," Dean said ,trying to hide that he worried for Mercy's safety, "Torture her for information, make sure we're the only ones here, hostage maybe." After a moment, he added, "I just hope we're not too late."

When Mercy first came too she felt like she had been hit with a frying pan, and she wasn't entirely sure where she was or how she got there. The last thing she remembered was walking along the woods calling out for help, trying to lure out the werewolves from the fortress. She tried to move but felt something heavy on her arms and legs, holding her back. She slowly opened her eyes, her vision blurry. When it cleared she saw she was in a room with light brown walls, with a grotesque addition of blood stains. Now alarmed, she looked around franticly and realized that she was strapped down to an antique chair with shining sliver colored chains woven around her arms and legs, tied off at her wrists and ankles. Now she remembered. The Alpha himself had approached her then set an entire pack of wolves on Sam and Dean, that strangely didn't attack her, and when she tried to help he had hit her, eventually rendering her unconscious.

Mercy struggled against her bonds, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Hey! Where are you, coward?! What the big strong daddy wolf has to take a girl from behind, leave her chained to a chair?! Come in here and face me like a man!"

As she struggled silently against the chains, a large shadow fell over her. Standing in the doorway was the werewolf Alpha, this time with an Amazon tall woman with long tresses of startling brilliant red hair in a brown taffeta dress clinging on him.

"Good," The Werewolf Alpha said, walking into the room accompanied by the clingy woman, "You're awake."

Mercy said, nothing just kept struggling to get free, staring up at the Alpha with hatred in her eyes.

"Mercy," The Alpha said, shaking his head, "You know that's useless. It is Mercy, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Mercy said, stopping her fight, "What's it to ya?"

"I just thought it would be helpful," The Alpha responded, "After all we have much to...discuss."

"You keeping saying that," Mercy said, starting to shake the chair once again, "But what the Hell does it mean?"

"Oh," The woman still clinging to Alpha like they were the world's only fraternal conjoined twins, "I think you know, my child."

"Oh," The Alpha said, toying with her, "I've been so rude. We know your name, but you don't know ours. Mercy, this here is Genevieve. Genevieve, this is Mercy. Would you care to have a closer look?"

"Yes," Genevieve answered, instantly crouching down and leaning into the point that she practically on top of Mercy.

"Ah, I know you don't really understand this concept but there's this thing called personal space," Mercy said.

"Oh, such cheek," Genevieve beamed, "Even chained to a chair with a couple of blood-thirsty predators, still so impudent. "

Mercy didn't response, instead using this opportunity to get a better look at the woman studying her, and made some surprising observation. Her face was all sharp angles, giving her face a somewhat regal appearance when looked at it up close, helped out by high cheekbones, and pearly pink cheeks. Her eyebrows were thick and much too manicured. But what Mercy found really disturbing was the color of Genevieve's eyes. Even though she was in human form, they were an animal-like shade of yellow that seemed to be peering into Mercy, like a predator on its prey. Genevieve crested Mercy's face. She moved her hand back Mercy noticed that she was wearing what appeared to be a sliver ring. How could a werewolf be wearing a sliver ring? Her finger should be burning.

"Stainless steel," Genevieve answered, as if reading Mercy's mind.

"Gift from Daddy to his favorite girl?" Mercy mocked.

"Actually, no," Genevieve replied, "I've had it much longer than I've known him." Looking down as Mercy's right hand, she added, "I am rather curious, though," She traced an outline around the ring on Mercy's right hand, "About your ring. " Genevieve looked back up at Mercy and said, "Tell me child, where did you get it?"

Mercy looked down at the ring. It was a gold band with an onyx stone set in it. It was given to her by Thomas. Before that he had always worn it around his neck on a piece of string, the only jewelry of his mother's that he hadn't hocked after his family was massacred. He assumed it was just another cheap piece of costume jewelry until Mercy had set him straight about it.

"Seriously?" He had said, holding the ring in between his fingers, "This is worth something?" At that point he handed it to her to look at it.

"Oh, a couple of hundred at least," Mercy said, upon inspecting it from her spot in the passenger seat, "Twenty-four carat gold at least, real onyx, and whoever etched those leaves around the setting's got real talent."

Thomas had given her a quizzical look.

"My dad runs a jewelry store, remember?" Mercy reminded him, handing him back the ring.

"Um," Thomas, looking at the ring, "It's amazing."

"What is?" Mercy said, cocking her head to the side.

"That you can have something so valuable and you may never know it." Thomas said. Then he gently lifted Mercy's right hand, and held it out in front of him.

"What are you doing?" Mercy had asked, eyeing him carefully.

"Knowing what I have," Thomas had answered, slipping the ring on her ring finger.

"Thomas," Mercy had practically gasped, "I can't accept it."

"I want you to have it," Thomas replied, then to silence her on the issued leaned in and kissed her.

No. She would not let them have that. They could kill her, they could try to control her, but they could not have that. "No of your business," She growled.

"It's just," Genevieve said, examining the ring, "It looks just like one I use to have, back in the 1500s. I lost when I was turning this game hunter who put up a fight. Cut off my ring ringer."

Mercy looked down at Genevieve's right hand. All the digits were there so her eyes shifted to the other hand, everything was there.

"Oh, I met a witch who helped me grew it back," It took a little experimenting, but-" She waved the finger with the stainless steel ring in the air, "And of course, she was rewarded. I introduce you to her but she's somewhat busy at the moment, tending to Regina."

Mercy racked for brain trying to figure out where she had heard that name before when it hit her like an atomic bomb. "You turned the pregnant woman." One of the three people who had gone missing was mother-to-be Regina Haynes. Mercy had been trying not to think about her fate because it was just too awful, but she knew the woman and her unborn child were most likely dead. Now an even worst possibility was forming in her mind.

"We're trying a little experiment," The Alpha said, " If it goes as planned we're looking at the first natural born werewolf since...well, me."

Mercy was now seething with anger. Saddling a child with this curse before its life had even begun. "You sick son of..." She began.

"Now, now," The Alpha interrupted, "We'll doing the child a favor, what, with what's about to take place."

"Yeah," Mercy said tersely, "My friends told me about your 'family reunion'."

"So you also know that we're trying to expand our numbers as much as possible," Genevieve said, sauntering around Mercy with her swinging stride, "Which is why it was such a joy to find you."

Meanwhile, Sam and Dean had found their way back to the fortress and managed to sneak in and ungraded back entrance. The room they were in was covered in brown wall paper spirzted with blood, and had had a small wooden table in it, smeared with blood. "Man," Dean said, disturbed and someone what disgusted by the gore, "What do they do in here? Just-rip things to shreds all day?"

"Hopefully Mercy isn't one of them," Sam responded as they crept through the room.

They made their way thought every room they came across and found nothing, except for the blood stains that seemed to be everywhere on the premises. It had struck them odd that they hadn't been intercepted or attacked or even ran into anyone, but for now they weren't looking a gift horse in the mouth. At last they heard the sound of people talking up stairs. They moved stealthily up the bloody staircase, guns at the ready. They snuck passed the first room and stopped at the second room on the right, where the first voices seemed to be coming from. Dean looked behind the corner, carefully, so he was not seen, and saw Mercy chained to a chair staring contemptuously at the Werewolf Alpha and a woman who was with him. "No," Mercy said firmly, shaking her said, "I won't. I'll never be like you."

Dean looked back Sam.

"She okay?" Sam mouthed.

"It doesn't look like they've hurt her," Dean whispered, "But she's tied up."

"Oh, boys," A female voice called out, "We know you're out there so why don't you just show yourselves."

Just then two men and a young woman stepped out from next room over. The boys could see they weren't being given a choice so they walked into the room.

"Well, well, well," The woman who was falling over the Alpha said, "This is a surprise. Didn't expect to be seeing you to again."

"Do I even want to know what happened to my children?" The Alpha said, calmly. Why was it that all the Alphas they encountered were always so damn clam no matter what was going on?

"We wasted at least four of them," Dean said, "The others we're not sure about but they probably won't be playing fetch for a little bit."

Again the Alpha was oddly clam, but his lady friend looked almost devastated at the news.

Dean ignored them and turned his attention to the bound woman a few feet away. "You alright, Mercy?"

"Yeah, all things considered," Mercy replied anxiously, clutching onto the chair arms for dear life, "You really shouldn't have come back here."

"We weren't gonna just leave you," Sam said.

"No, I'm glad they can back," The Alpha said, "You see I was a little sad that wouldn't get a chance to turn at least one of you. A Winchester would be quite a trophy."

"What do you know guys?" Mercy said, awkwardly, "You're famous."

"For a while now, actually," Dean commented, "So why didn't you then? Why spend the fanged and clawed hit squad after us instead?"

"Alas," The Alpha said, "I had my wayward daughter to deal with."

"What does that mean?" Dean responded.

"That's right," The red-headed woman said, turning to look at Mercy, "They don't know your dirty little secret, do they?" She walked back over to Mercy, "Well," She started to undo the chains, which must have been iron or steel, as her hands did not burn, "Why don't we show them?"

"No," Mercy said, panicking as the last chain came off, "No!"

"What," Dean said, sternly, "What secret? What are they talking about?"

"Dean," Sam said in that breathy voice he got when something bad was going on, "Look at her.'

The entire room's attention had turned to Mercy, who was now standing in the center of the room, looking as if she was fighting something from inside her.

"Alphas can evoke the change at any time in their children," The redhead told Mercy, sounding like she was enjoying this, "Well, at least, this one can." She clung on even tighter to the Alpha. "There's no use fighting this, my dear."

The statement made it all click together for Sam and Dean, but they still couldn't process the information, it was shuck a shock.

"Shoot me!" Mercy pleaded, fighting the transformation occurring within her, "You know the truth now! I'm a monster, I'll kill you, you need to kill me first!" But it was too late. Her fingernails turned into claws, her teen turned into her fangs, and her blue eyes turned a milky hue.

Mercy was now a werewolf in the attack possession.


	8. Chapter 8

"You son of a bitch!" Dean seethed at the Alpha, but his gun was trained on Mercy, who had not yet attacked but looked like she might at any second.

"Oh, Dean," The Alpha began, "It is Dean, right? Well, anyway, you know I didn't do this. Somewhere along the line some other werewolf turned our dear Ms. Mercy."

Dean was silent for a moment. He knew the Alpha was telling the truth. there were no fresh wounds on her, plus, what he said about Mercy being a 'wayward child.' It didn't get much more wayward then a werewolf who was a monster hunter."Yeah," He said at last, "I know."

Finely finding their nerve, the hunters were about to shoot at Mercy before she could attack, when something tackled Dean from the side and Sam felt someone gab him from behind.

Dean watched as a feminine hand picked up his gun, and took the silver knife from his jacket pocket. He looked up to see the redhead standing over him. "Uh, uh," She scolded, "That's not fair. Mercy isn't armed."

"Quite right, my dear," The Alpha agreed, pulling Sam's gun from his hand than throwing him to the ground, "Don't worry, she won't attack, not just yet. Not until we're out of the way." And then the Alpha and the redhead walked out, shutting the door behind them.

As Dean and Sam got to their feet they heard the door lock. "Crap," Dean said, "Now we really are boned."

The brothers' eyes searched the room for anything they use to defend themselves with but the only in thing in the room was the chair and the chains but Mercy was in-between the Winchesters and said items. Mercy growled ferociously then leaped at them, but they were able to spilt up and she landed on the floor. Unfortunately they each wound up, literally, in a corner. She turned and glared at Dean, who was the more boxed in of the two and lumbered over in his direction. At lost for anything else to do he closed his eyes and braced for the ripping pain he was sure was coming, but then something completely unexpected happened. He heard Mercy growling again, but sounded almost like she was trying to say 'no' and then when he opened his eyes, Mercy was running across the room, and flung herself out the window. Sam and Dean quickly ran over and looked at the window. Mercy was still falling along with a thousand chards of glass. They flinched as she hit the ground thinking she would go splat, but miraculously , she landed on her feet, and ran off, though with a bit of a limp. At that moment, the Alpha and the redhead barged in, alerted that their plan had gone awry by all the noise. Not knowing any other way to escape Sam and Dean threw themselves over the jagged glass left on the window. As the fall was not as far as it appeared, they managed to land on their feet as well as ran off towards the forest.

They ran as fast they could until they were so far away that it was safe to stop. They took a moment to catch their breath, then Sam said, "What are we gonna do?"

"You'll have to be more specific, Sam," Dean replied, "We have a couple different situations."

"Okay, let's start with Mercy," Sam said, "She's out there, on the loose. " Then after a moment, he added, "But she's one of us, too. "

Dean didn't replay.

After a minute of silence Sam spoke up again, "Dean..."

"Give me a minute," Dean said, "This isn't exactly precedented. I mean, she's a hunter, but she's a werewolf and she's been that way for some time. How did we miss that?"

It was just then Sam remembered an incident from earlier. "Pig ears."

"What?" Dean asked, having no idea what Sam was talking about.

"Yesterday while we were waiting for you in front of the grocery store," Sam explained, "I pulled out this bag in her glove box and...it had raw meat in it, and a couple of them looked like pig ears, but I don't know what the rest was, although now I'm willing to bet there was a couple of animal hearts in there."

"And you didn't think that was odd?" Dean asked, not believing Sam hadn't mentioned this before.

"I thought it was weird, but she gave some vague explanation for it and then we got into all this and I forgot about it until just now," Sam responded, "Now I'm wondering if she's using them to treat her condition."

Dean pondered that for a moment, then something else occurred to him. " Did you say she had raw _meat _in her _glove box _?"

"She said it was some sort of refrigerated bag or something," Sam replied, "Look, is that really important right now?"

"No," Dean acknowledged, "Right now we need to find her, make sure she doesn't hurt anyone, and avoid the Alpha on our tail. "

They walked for the rest of the night, unsure of where they were, until the sun was up. The only reason they stopped is because they heard crying. "You don't think-?" Dean began.

"Only one way to be sure," Sam said, and stealthily peaked through the trees and that they had reached some sort of riverbank, and Mercy was lying by the river, her jacket covering her, sobbing.

When Mercy woke up, she ached all over and heard the rushing of water. She opened her eyes and saw a smoothly flowing river. She could hear the forest all around her, smell it, but she also caught faint traces of blood, _her _ blood she realized. she looked at her hands saw that they were covered in cuts, the beginning of her upper arms too. She felt her forehead and found it sticky with blood. _"What happened?" _ She wondered to herself. The last thing she remembered was screaming for Sam and Dean, for one of them to shoot her, because she could feel herself changing and she couldn't stop it, and then she, she...she changed into a werewolf. And if she was out here, if they hadn't kill her then...

"Oh, God," Mercy whispered aloud, tears already starting down her face. She had killed them. There was no other explanation. She had to have killed Dean and Sam. All of these years fighting against the urges doing everything to make sure she didn't hurt anyone and...it wall fell apart in one night. The Werewolf Alpha had controlled her like a puppet, and she became the monster she had always feared she would. She killed two good people. And it would happen again. Now there was no way to go back. She would just kill, and kill, and keep on killing. Unless she stopped herself, ended it all now. But the Alpha had taken all her weapons off her he nabbed her. Mercy raised her body up and looked into the river. If was deep enough, or if she didn't try to fight it, then maybe, just maybe, it could work. "I only got one afterlife option, anyway," She said, then threw herself into the river. It wasn't deep enough to submerge herself, but she could keep her head down, and she was, letting the water fill her nose, and mouth, not fighting to survive. Then suddenly, she felt two pair of hands grab onto her, and pull her out of out of the water. She gasped as the air filled her lungs. She looked and saw the two people who had saved her. "Sam?" She said, stunned at their presence, "Dean?"

Dean let go and Sam set her down by the trees. "I didn't, I didn't-" She sputtered.

"Killed us?" Dean finished, "Actually, it kinda surprised me, too. And how exactly did you stop yourself?"

"I was hoping you could tell me," Mercy said.

"Well, honestly for a couple of minutes there I thought we were goners-" Dean began.

Mercy looked like she was about to start crying again.

"But we're fine. We're still here," Sam told her, "Because you did something incredible."

Mercy looked up at him. "What did I do?"

"You had us both in a corner," Sam began, "Honestly, Dean over there was prepared for the end, and you were about go in for the kill when..." Sam's voice trailed off then he said, sounding impressed, "You backed up, made some sort of noises that almost sounded like you were saying no, then flung yourself out the window."

Mercy felt out the cuts on her face again. "That's where I got all these cuts from?"

"Yeah," Dean answered.

"And I was able to break through for a couple of minutes?" Mercy asked, "To control myself?"

"Enough control to save us," Sam said.

"And I-" Mercy began, afraid of the answer to her questions, "I didn't kill anyone?"

"Well, we saw a dead rabbit somewhere along the line," Dean said, "But I, ah, don't think that was you."

"Oh, thank God," Mercy sighed in relief.

"But Mercy, we still need to talk about the elephant in the room," Sam said.

"You mean me," Mercy said.

"How long have you been a werewolf?" Sam asked.

"Fourteen years," Mercy answered, "As long as I've been a hunter."

"Wait a second, you became a monster hunter because you became a monster?" Dean asked, surprised. Every hunter had their gruesome story as to how they got in the life, but this was a new one.

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Mercy replied.

"Could you mind explaining it for us?" Sam asked.

Mercy paused a minute, took a deep breath looked at each of the brothers in turned, and began the story she thought she'd never to tell, "When I was seventeen, I was walking home from a babysitting job when I was...I was attacked by a werewolf. It was...so strong, I thought, I was gonna die. And then," She undid the fest few buttons on her shirt and pulled it back, revealing a mouth-shaped scar on her shoulders, "It bit me." As she pulled her shirt back she continued, "And while I was losing consciousness out of nowhere comes Thomas, and he killed it, got me to safety, treated the bite, and was standing over me when I came to. He told me, that I was a werewolf now to, but I hadn't hurt anyone yet, so he didn't want to kill me, and that we were gonna figure this out. We wound holding up in this abandoned cabin that turned out to be haunted, but the previous owner. We tracked the grave down and before Thomas to burn the corpse the guy attacks, and while he was combating an angry poacher who had a good right hook even in death, and I managed to salt and burn the body-" Mercy chuckled a bit, "You should have seen the look on Thomas' face when the guy evaporated, he was so surprised, you see he hadn't told me what to do, I just figured it out all on my own. That was how we claimed to the conclusion, that I could be a great hunter. In fact some of the abilities I got as a werewolf, unusual strength, heightened since of smells, things like that, came in handy on hunts. We found ways I could manage the condition, raw meat, animal blood, going deep into the woods by myself when it got to that kind of the month, so the only took out animals, and only ate animal hearts, or staying awake from days on end if it came to it. It wasn't a perfect system, but it worked." She paused, brushing her hair out of her face, then added, "At least until this year. Now I'm afraid to even go to sleep. There was even this close call a couple of months back in Huston. No one was hurt but,...it was close, and I had to leave town. And then..."Mercy threw her arms in the air then threw them back at her sides, "This happened. Turns out this whole time I've never been in control, at any time the Alpha could've turned me into a killer. I'm always going to be a danger to anyone around me." Mercy casted her eyes down, "You should have just let me drown."

Sam and Dean were silent. They felt sorry for Mercy. She had spent her entire adult life dealing with this curse. She was clearly trying her best to be good, even managed to do some good, but the fear and strain clearly weighed on her. And now because of what had happened with the Alpha, she was about to give up.

"You ever kill anyone?" Dean asked, " I mean, humans, not monsters or animals."

"No," Mercy said, "Never."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Dean said, setting on the other side of Mercy, " But I think we can work with this."

"Really?" Mercy asked, turning to look at him in surprise.

"Yeah, really?" Sam asked too, turning to look at his brother, equally if not more surprised than Mercy.

"What, you don't think she's suffered enough?" Dean asked, surprised by Sam's reaction.

"I do it's just-" Sam's voice trailed off, then he said after a moment, "I'm surprised to hear you say it."

"Where do people get this idea that I'm unreasonable?" Dean demanded, looking around as if their surroundings held the answer, "She's got it under control-"

"Did you listen to a word I just said?" Mercy cut in, "I do _not _have this under control."

"Well, from what you told us before the whole monster revolution started, you did," Sam told, "Though you should really reconsider where you store your meat stash. Hiding it in the glove box, that can't really be sanitary."

"Anyway," Dean said, taking back control of the discussion, "If we can take the Alpha out somehow you could get your life back. I mean, you're never gonna be rid of your condition, but you can manage it, again."

Mercy didn't see what that had to do with anything. She would still be a danger to people.

"Which mean no one can make you hurt people," Sam said, knowing what she was thinking, "And then you won't, because you're strong enough. You.." Sam's voice trailed for a second then he exhaled a bit and began, "You've already prove that. You save our lives about three different times now, you risked exposure to try to stop the Alpha and..." Sam voice trailed off for a moment, and then looking Mercy, at he said, "My God, you actually fought his influence off, fought off the influence of the monster inside you, even if it was only for a few seconds. Mercy, we've never seen anything like that before."

Mercy was quiet for a moment, considering what Sam had said. "I didn't like the idea of Purgatory anyway," She said at least, but looking at the brothers on either side of her, she added, deathly seriously, "But if the Alphas brings the monster out again and I'm about to hurt someone, you shoot me."

"Don't worry," Dean said, "We will. Last night was just a slip-up from the shock."

"I need you both to promise me," Mercy said urgency, "That you will." There was something in her eyes that looked almost like desperation. She wanted to know they could do it.

Both Sam and Dean were somewhat scared by how easy it was to agree. "I promise," Dean said first. Then he looked over to Sam.

"Me too," Sam said at last, "I promise."

They were all solemnly quiet for a minute. "So," Sam said at last, "What _are _we going to do about the Alpha?"

"We know he's going to be expecting us," Mercy said.

"And we still have no idea how to kill him." Dean added.

"That might not be true," Sam said.

Both Mercy and Dean turned to look at him. "What, you've holding something back?" Dean asked.

"No," Sam replied, "But I've been thinking. To kill a normal werewolf, you have to shoot it in the heart. And werewolves also eat hearts. A lot of aspect or werewolves focus around the heart."

"So you think that if we do something with the Alpha's heart, that'll kill it, or at least hurt it?" Mercy asked.

"Yeah," Sam said, "But not just shooting it. Like taking it out of something."

"The question now is," Mercy said, looking between her good friends, "How do we gonna get close enough to try it out."

" I have an idea," Dean spoke up, "But, ah, you guys aren't gonna like it." Looking directly at Mercy he added, "I definitely know you ain't gonna like it."

Five hours later, a broken looking Mercy dragged a struggling , and seemingly injured Dean cross the clearing where they were greeted by line of twenty-four people who they knew were almost certainly werewolves.

"I'm here to see the Alpha," Mercy said firmly, then in the tone of a prodigal daughter desperate for forgiveness added, "I've realized it's time to come home."


	9. Chapter 9

She casted her eyes down in a deep show of remorse, "I even brought a peace offering." Still grabbing tight to Dean's shoulders, and left arm, she pushed him out for them to see.

"You bitch," Dean seethed, "I'm gonna kill you. I swear if it's that last thing I do, I'm gonna kill you!"

"I'd like to give him to the Alpha myself," Mercy said, sounding as if she was nervous about pushing it, "You know, if that's alright?"

Before anyone could speak Genevieve walked up from out of nowhere and the line split, so that she could right up right to Mercy and her "prisoner." "Well, well, well," She said, looking at Mercy and slyly smiling, "We were beginning think you'd never show up." Eying the caked blood on Mercy's hands and her mouth, she added, "I guess we know what happened to the other one. You're a bit of a messy eater, aren't you?"

Actually, Sam had cut himself and smeared his blood on her hands, and around her mouth, being careful to avoid actually getting it _in _ her mouth. Dean had contributed some to, using opportunity to fake some inquiries and make it look like they had fought. They let it age to make sure that it looked like it was from the night before, and then set out for the estate.

"Don't worry," Genevieve assured her, "It was your first human killed after all, after years of holding it back, what else can be expected? Come, he's waiting for you."

Mercy and the weakly struggling Dean followed the woman who appeared to be the Alpha's right hand. "Bitch?" Mercy whispered in Dean's ear.

"Had to make it look believable," Dean whispered back. Then keeping the act up, started shouting again, "I swear, I'm gonna kill you for what you did to my brother! I'm gonna kill you, all! Do you hear me?!"

"Okay, maybe tone it down a little bit," Mercy whispered as they crossed the threshold. She barely holding onto the Dean. It crossed her mind that she'd hate to see what it was like he really was trying to break free.

They stopped sort a few feet of Genevieve, who had suddenly stopped in the middle of the hall. She turned around and looked at the pair in front of her, as if she was looking right through them both, then started to walk around them in a circle, as if examining them. She stopped in front of them and said, more to herself than them, "No, not yet."

"What does that mean?" Mercy asked.

"Oh," Genevieve said, turning around and walking away, "You'll see." And then she walked up into nearby room.

Mercy and Dean exchanged glances. There was the rumbled of low whispers from the room Genevieve had just walked into, but even with Mercy's acute hearing all she could make out was, "she's not ready yet," , "they're hiding something," and " I'm sorry I have to do this to you."

"Uh, oh," Mercy said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"What?" Dean said, a little louder than he meant to, then he lowered his voice as he said, "What is it?"

"Something's wrong," Mercy answered, sounding scared, "I'm not sure what, but something's going on that we didn't see coming. Maybe I should go for the lights." They had decided that since the house appeared to use regular electric lights to use them as a signal, flickering them twice for the job was done, and flickering them once for the more likely event that something had gone wrong and they needed Sam, who was waiting in the woods hold up in a tree, to come in as back up.

"No, not yet," Dean hissed, "Look, just- wait it out a little bit, and keep acting like you're ready to drink the _Kool-Aid. _"

Just then the Werewolf Alpha walked out of the room and into the hallway, beaming. "Ah, Mercy," he said, joyously, "Good to see you came around after all." Eyeing Dean he added, "And you had enough forethought to save one of the Winchesters for me. So impressive for your first human kill. Not all of my children would have such control."

"Thank, my lord," Mercy said, letting go of Dean and falling to her knees, practically groveling.

The Werewolf Alpha walked over to her saying, "Dear, there's no need for all that." Then he helped her to her feet. "Now," He said, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and whipping the dirt off Mercy's face, "I can see you've traveled far, and been involved in quite the battle, why don't go to the bathroom down there," He pointed down the accident hall, "And wash up, while I have a little talk with Dean."

"Alright," Mercy said, wanting to keep up the act but sounding a little worried at the thought of leaving Dean alone with the first werewolf ever created. As she let go of Dean, and started down the hall she turned around and looked at the two of them again.

" Go on," The Alpha encouraged, waving a hand down the hall.

Seeing no other choice, Mercy went down the hall, keeping a close ear on what was happening in the hall.

"So, Dean," The Alpha began, looking at the ragged, scratched-up, limping man before him, "How did our Mercy get the jump on you? I mean, after last night, I thought she was lost forever. We were preparing for an onslaught hunters, actually."

"That's explains the welcome wagon out front," Dean said. Fortunately, they had prepared a cover story in case they were asked. "After we busted out, she ambushed us in the woods," Dean began, seemingly seething, "Next thing I know, she's on top of Sam ripping his heart out of his chest." He paused for good measure, then said, gazing intently with hatred at the Alpha, "I was able to fight her off 'till morning but when she changed back she got me, dragged me back here."

As Mercy turned on the snick and literally washed the blood off her hands and her face, causing the water to run red with the stuff, she listened carefully to the conversation going on in the hall. So far it seemed to be going well. The Alpha seemed to be buying it. Now if they could only act before he did something to Dean. It was then she heard something that made her blood run cold. The Alpha chuckled and said, "It was a good try Dean, a really good try, but you can give it up now."

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked. Mercy was halfway out of the bathroom at that point.

"Give it up, Dean," The Alpha repeated, "I'll admit you nearly had us fooled, but blood, the blood wasn't quite right. "

By that point Mercy was halfway down the hall, and saw the Alpha begin to transform. On instinct alone she pulled out her gun and fired at the Alpha. She was surprised when it not only hit the Alpha's side, but appeared to hurt him. Weren't Alphas suppose to be essentially indestructible?

Mercy didn't have really any time to think on the this, as the wounded Alpha turned his attention onto her. Not knowing what else to do, and hopping that it would at least slow him down, Mercy aimed her gun at the Alpha's chest and fired.

And then the unbelievable happened. The Alpha fell to the floor. Both Dean and Mercy rushed over to him and watched as he took his last breath and died. Mercy and Dean looked at each other with stunned, confused expression. "You said that wouldn't work," Mercy said.

"It shouldn't have," Dean responded, looking down at the dead body, "It shouldn't have been that easy. It shouldn't have been that easy at all."

Suddenly several things clicked together for Mercy. "Unless he wasn't really the Alpha."

"You can't impersonate an Alpha, Mercy," Dean replied tensely.

"No, she's right," A female voice said from behind them.

Dean and Mercy turned around and saw Genevieve step out for the shadows. "He wasn't the Werewolf Alpha," the light flickered in her yellow eyes as she said, "I am."


	10. Chapter 10

Mercy and Dean stared at her in shock. It didn't add up, but at the same time it made sense in a way. The way she always seemed to be there, fact that the fake Alpha had allowed her to examine Mercy, to be involved as much as she had been period, the weight she seemed to carry with the other werewolves, the fact that she appeared to have no reaction to sliver, even the weird color of her eyes. But the werewolf Alpha, a woman?

Genevieve-the Werewolf Alpha, apparently, laughed in amusement. "I love the look on their faces when they find out." She said, partly to herself, partly to them , "That-that is why Mom always liked me best out of all her girls. "

"Mom?!" Dean exclaimed, finding words at last.

"You mean the Mother Of All?" Mercy added.

"Oh, yes," The _real _ Werewolf Alpha confirmed.

"Oh," Dean said, deciding as the worst time possible to be snarky, "You mean the one I wasted-"

Just then the Werewolf Alpha grabbed Dean's throat and violently threw him against the wall. "That's my mother you're talking about." She said, oddly calm, "You shouldn't talk about people's mothers."

Dean struggled against the Alpha's grip, gasping for air. It looked like the Alpha meant to kill him.

Just then several werewolves, still in their human form, barged through the door, dragging a struggling figure behind them. The Alpha dropped Dean and turned around to see what was going on. Mercy ran over to Dean who was still lying on the ground, and helped him get somewhat upright. "You alright?" She asked.

"Yeah," Dean said, "I think so."

"We found this one in the woods around the perimeter," A male with light brown hair and eyes said, pushing the person they had forward towards the Alpha. It was Sam.

"Good work, Nathan," The Alpha said, addressing the group's leader, "Now, I need a few moments alone with these three. Leave us, please."

Wordlessly the group of werewolves excited the house. Sam looked at the scene before him, utterly confused. "They just did what you said, no questions asked," He said, looking around the hall. His eye fell on the corpse of the man he believed to be the Alpha.

"Oh," Dean said, as Mercy helped him to his feet, "It turns out the guy who we really thought was the Alpha was a fake Alpha and she's the real Werewolf Alpha, and apparently Eve's special favorite."

"At least among her daughters," The Alpha said coolly, sauntering around the trio, "Oh sure, the Siren Alpha is inhumanly, breathtakingly gorgeous to the point it's almost frightening, and the Changeling Alpha had a certainly motherly quality that both she and our mother share but I-I always surprised people, and she loves that."

"So you do this a lot?" Mercy asked, "Put on some giant charade?"

"Well, not often and when I do, I don't usually go to this much trouble," The Alpha replied, as if they were having a friendly conversation, "I remember this one time a hunter found his way here, and I came running through the woods saying I had been kidnapped by werewolves-I was wearing sliver rings so he didn't question the story, you see," She held up her finger with the sliver ring, "I lied about this being stainless steel, it really is sliver. Anyway, I lead to a cave where I claimed they took me, pointed at something, and while he was turned around, bashed his head in with a hammer." She chuckled, as if recalling a funny memory.

Sam, Dean, and Mercy stared at her, horrified.

Noticing the way they were looking at her, she said, rather nonchalantly, "Well, if I had ripped his heart out other hunters would've come. Though, as I was saying I usually don't perform elaborate subterfuges such as this. Normally I would've just sent my men out to kill you, maybe even doing it myself, but I sensed one of my children was with you, so I thought it bared further investigation and then when I realized she herself was a hunter, put on the performance we did to bring her into the fold and ensure the safety of me and my men."

Dean looked down at the dead body of the man who had pretended to be the Alpha and said, "How's that working out for you?"

The next thing Dean was aware of is a sharp sting on his face as the Alpha slapped him, hard, sending him back several feet. Then she looked down at the body, almost mournfully, shaking her head, and said, "Pour Jean-Paul. He was always one of my favorites. " Looking up slightly she continued, "He was the one I told you about, the one who cut off my finger. But he's been loyal to ever since I turned him." Then turning her attention to the three hunters and said, "Now I just have to figure out what to do with you three." She walked around them, looking rather thoughtful. Then she grabbed Dean's wrist, and pulled him away from the group. Dean struggled against her, pulling away, but she was too strong, and while that was going on, Sam shouted, "Let go of him!" and the almost exact same time Mercy was shrieking, "Leave him alone!," both of them reaching out, but the Alpha slapped them away, nearly sending the slight Mercy to the ground. Sam caught her before she fell.

"Oh, don't worry," The Alpha said, flinging Dean to the other side of the room, "I'm not gonna hurt him. Not, yet at least. I just think you made the right choice and bringing him me over Sam." Looking at Sam, the Alpha said, "Sorry."

"So, what you're gonna turn me?" Dean asked.

"Yes," The Alpha answered, "Though I do have a few other things to deal with first." She opened the door and called out, "Nathan, Cecilia, Jonathan!" Within a few moments three werewolves in their human forms, the one who had addressed the Alpha earlier, a curvy woman with dark hair that went to her shoulder blades, and a man who was thin to the point of gauntness his whole body pale, were at the doorway, waiting to do their creator's bidding.

Gabbing Dean's arm she threw them at Nathan and Cecilia and commanded, "Lock him up somewhere secure, and keep him restrained. I'm not taking any chances." Then taking a tight hold on Mercy's arm, dragged her over to Jonathan, while Mercy kicked and screamed, "Let go of me!"

"Take Mercy and put her with the other new ones," The Alpha commanded, handing her off the one Mercy assumed was Jonathan, then sounding almost ruefully said, "I hoped I could get her to come around without this, but it looks like that isn't going to be the case."

She turned back to Sam as her soldiers tried to drag their struggling captives away. "Now," The Alpha said, strutting over to Sam with a crooked little smile on her face as he tried to back away, "That leaves you. The odd man out. Sorry, but I don't really have a use for you, which leaves only on option, I'm afraid." Her face started to grow into a muzzle of shorts, with a mouth of fangs, already curved fingernails became claws and she seemed to actually grow a few inches in height. She was about to bear down on Sam when Mercy was able to break free from Jonathan's hold and ran between the two shouting, "Stop!"

Unlike regular werewolves, the Werewolf Alpha could control herself while in her monster form. Curious at what her reluctant daughter would do she halted in her attack.

Mercy's mine raced. She needed to find a way to stall the Alpha, to get them all out of there. Her eyes darted around the room for any possible way of escape. There was none. There was only one exit and it was blocked by the werewolves that had Dean, and they had a pretty strong hold on him. If she and Sam tried to run and get to a window or something he'd probably be killed in retaliation. And even if there wasn't that, they'd be intercepted before they could get out. And on top of all that she wasn't sure how much time she had left because the Alpha was starting to look impatient and bored. That gave her an idea. If this idea worked, Mercy would probably die, but it would give her friends a chance to escape. "I want to make a bet with you." Mercy said quickly.

The Werewolf Alpha cocked her hand, then started to slowly convert back to her human form. "What sort of bet?" She asked, when she was fully human again.

"I bet," Mercy began, trying to keep up her courage, "That I can take you on in the woods and our monster forms and survive and maybe even win."

The Werewolf Alpha was silent for a minute, thinking the wager over, then said, "And I bet that I'll kill you."

"I kinda figured that," Mercy said, her heart thumping so hard she thought it would pop out of her chest at any moment.

"And I suppose that, as with most bets, there are some sort of stakes." The Werewolf Alpha replied.

"If I win, you let all three of us go," Mercy said, "Me, Sam and Dean, and you don't turn them or kill us, and you stop building up your army and you leave me alone." She really hopped she wasn't pushing her luck.

"Tell you what," The Alpha said, "I'll meet a halfway. If you win, I'll meet your terms of letting the three of you go unharmed and leaving you alone, but I am _not _ stopping building my army."

"I can live with that," Mercy said.

"Oh, and if _I _win," The Alpha began, " I turn Dean, and eat Sam's heat. Unless somehow you survive the night but I'm still alive, then _you _ do it and come into the fold."

"Deal," Mercy said, her voice determined. She knew she probably wouldn't make it out of this alive, but at least this would buy Sam and Dean some time and maybe they could escape.

The Alpha smiled cruelly. "Change of plans," She said, turning to her werewolves, "Take the boys and lock them up." As she flung Sam at Jonathan who quickly pinned the young man's arms behind his back, she continued, "I want them in separate rooms, restrained and guarded. I'm not taking any chances with those two." Then she turned her attention back to Mercy. "As for you, dear Mercy," She gently brushed a strain of hair out of Mercy's face, "You are staying with me until nightfall. "

"Nightfall," Mercy repeated, "That's when this is gonna go down?"

"Yes," The Alpha confirmed, "After the sun goes down, then we'll fight."


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Sorry this took so long. I've had a major case of writer's block on this piece. **

The rest of the day was miserable.

Dean was tied to an exposed beam in what looked to be some sort of drawing room. The more he struggled the smaller the knots seemed to get and tighter the ropes seemed to get. Eventually he just threw his head back and screamed in frustration, wondering if Sam and Mercy were okay.

Sam was in the same room the Alpha had put Mercy in the first time she nabbed her. This time they didn't pull out the sliver chains, just thick ropes, but they still did their job, keeping him secured to that chair. The only thing he managed to accomplish is to scoot the thing over to a nearby vent in hopes of hearing what was going on the other rooms. No such luck.

That left Mercy alone with the Werewolf Alpha. Which on his own was bad enough, but she kept on talking. Really, it was enough to make Mercy wish the Alpha would just rip her heart out already and get it over with.

"You have to admit, it is rather odd," The Alpha said, taking off her cardigan, "A werewolf becoming a hunter."

"If you say so," Mercy said, sitting on a four-post bed topped with a blanket of wolf-fur, head in her hand, not really caring what the Alpha thought of her.

"I mean, what do you if you run into another werewolf?" The Alpha asked, seemingly oblivious to Mercy's apathy.

"I don't discriminate," Mercy retorted, "If they kill someone, I kill them. You'd be dead by now if I knew how to do it."

The Alpha chortled. "It's actually quite simple," She said, turning around to look at Mercy, "Someone just has to eat my heart."

Mercy sat up, suddenly alert. Why was the Alpha telling Mercy her only weakness? Was she lying, trying to send Mercy off the right track? But then, again, Sam had thought the heart might be her weakness. But telling your enemy your one weak spot had to be, like, the worst move in the history of strategies. Which brought her back around to the question, why?

"Oh," The Alpha said, as if reading her mind, which for all Mercy knew, she was, "I wouldn't tell you this if I thought there was any hope of you actually accomplishing your goal."

"You don't know," Mercy, sliming silently, "I just might be the one that's able to take you down."

"I doubt it," The Alpha replied, "But, I'll admit, if someone was to take me down as you put it, it'd probably would be you."

"Why's that?" Mercy asked.

"You know, since you know both sides," The Alpha said, "Which, honestly, is another thing I don't understand. How do interact with other hunters? I mean, from what I hear they have all these sorts of test to make sure that their colleges aren't possessed or shape shifters, and one of them is cutting with a sliver knife. And we know what effects sliver knives have on you." She eyed the burn on Mercy's hand, the one that she had told Sam was from the engine of her car but was really from the blade of her knife. Boy, she wished she could go back to yesterday.

"That's why I don't interact with other hunters," Mercy snapped back.

"Then how on earth did you wind up running with the Winchester brothers, of all people?" The Alpha asked.

"Okay, lady, I don't know what's going on with those two that everyone and literally their mother knows their name," Mercy said, starting to tire again, "But I just met them yesterday, and couldn't shake them. They're the first hunters I've had any contact with in years."

"But you had to learn about hunting from someone," The Alpha replied, "And someone had to show the basics, or else you wouldn't have made it this far."

"How I got this far is none of your business," Mercy retorted. She knew where this was going and she was more determined than ever that the Alpha could _not _ have Thomas. If she was going to die, if there was no hope of seeing of him again because she was Purgatory bound, that one memory was going to remain pure.

But the Alpha kept on, picking up on Mercy's distress. "So cagey," The Alpha mused, "But only on this issue. " She turned around and leaned in so that she and Mercy were mere inches apart. "Why is that?" She cocked her head to the side, examining Mercy, "Is it because it hurts to much to think about it?"

Mercy did her best to keep her countenance the same, concealing the Alpha was partly right.

"Did something happen to them?" The Alpha guessed, "Did you do something to them?"

Mercy just stared at her, stone-faced.

"Did they attack you because of what you are?" The Alpha asked, "Or perhaps, did someone find out what you are and they got hurt defending you?"

"Like I keep saying," Mercy growled dangerously, "It's none of your business."

The Alpha was silent for a moment then said, "You know what, you seem tired. And why wouldn't you be, you haven't slept in at least two days. Why don't you lay down and sleep for a while?"

"If I do will you shut up?" Mercy asked.

"Yes," The Alpha said, ignoring Mercy's insult.

Mercy wordlessly lowered herself down onto the bed, which she had to admit was quite comfortable. She shut her eyelids, but fought sleep, thinking it dangerous. This could be some kind of trick. The Alpha could mean to kill Mercy in her sleep, or make the monster come out again and do the job it was suppose to do last night. But, exhausted, she surcame to sleep anyway. There was no attack or transformation, but what happened was just as bad, maybe worst. Thomas's death being brought to the forefront of her mind, she remembered what happened.

They were running out of the woods as the Windego they were hunting took its last breath of life and the fire died down. They had reached the edge of the woods when a faded blue car pulled up and two men stepped out. Mercy was wondering how they would explain their presence and lure the men away from the blaze when she saw a look of recognition in Thomas' eye. A look they roceptricated. "Thomas?" One of them, a man with thick brown hair and pellucid blue eyes, exclaimed in surprise, "Shoot, man, we thought you were dead."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Randy," Thomas said, smiling apprehensively.

"Hey, ah," The other one with longer tawny-colored hair began, grinning slyly at Mercy, "Who's your little friend here?"

Mercy looked over at Thomas, unsure of what to do. "This," Thomas said, trying to mask his nervousness, "This is Mercy. Mercy, this Randy, and Luke."

"Nice to meet you," Mercy said, quietly, barely making eye connect.

"She alright?" Randy whispered, directed at Thomas.

"Yeah," Thomas said, maybe a little too quickly, "She's just shy, that's all. " Quickly changing the subject, he added, ""Hey, if you guys are here about the Windego, me and Mercy just took care of that for you."

"Is that so?" Randy asked.

"Yeah," Thomas said, hopping that with the hunt over the pair would say their goodbyes and go away.

But instead, Randy began awkwardly, "Look ah, I hate to do this to you, but," He pulled out a flask of holy water, "Like I said, we haven't seen in a while, and we don't even know her."

Figuring that as long as it was just holy water Mercy would go undetected he took the flask from his old friend and applied it to his hand. He then handed it to Mercy who did the same.

Then, to their horror, Randy pulled out a sliver knife.

Mercy and Thomas exchanged worried looks. "Come on, guys," Thomas protested, "If the holy water didn't an effect, the sliver isn't."

"Holy water wouldn't work on a shape shifter," Randy replied, still holding out the knife to Thomas.

Seeing no way out Thomas took the knife and cut the palm of his hand. "Before we go on," Thomas said, pausing before anxiously handing the knife over to Mercy, "There's something you need to know about her."

Just then as if on cue, Mercy cut into her hand and screamed in pain as the knife burned her flesh.

Immediately the two hunters pulled out their guns.

"Wait," Thomas said, stepping in-between them and Mercy, "That's what I wanted to tell you about. Mercy's a Werewolf."

"And you're hunting with her?!" Randy exclaimed, "Have you lost your freaking mind?!"

"Look, I was there when she was turned," Thomas tried to explain, "She's never hurt anyone. In fact she's a pretty good hunter."

"That sort of disproves the first statement," Randy said, "If she can take out monsters, she can take out people."

Thomas turned to the subject of the conversation and said, "Mercy, I think you better go wait in the car."

Mercy just stood there, partly too scared to move, partly not wanting to leave Thomas alone with them.

"Guys, can you hold on a second while I deal with her?" Thomas asked.

"Don't worry," Randy said, his voice stern with a dangerous undertone, "We won't be going anywhere."

Thomas pulled her a few feet away where they couldn't hear, and whispered, "Mercy, you need to go to the truck."

"I'm not leaving you alone with them," Mercy whispered back.

"It's too dangerous right now for you to stay here." Thomas replied.

"Then come with me," Mercy urged, "We can just drive off and leave them in the dust."

"We both make a move to leave they'll be on us before we can get out of here," Thomas argued, "I know these two, they're really good at what they do."

"All the more reason to get out of Doge," Mercy contended, "Look, you could lie, say you're gonna walk me to the car, then come back, and never come back." She paused a minute, then said, "Please, Thomas, listen to me."

Thomas paused a minute, as if he was actually considering what she had said. "Mercy," He said at last, "If I don't talk them down, they're gonna tell every hunter they know, and those guys will tell every hunter _they_ know, and we'll be in more danger than we already are on a daily basis," He paused a moment, as if to let that sink in, "The only way out of this is to make them see reason," He glanced at the two men and added, "And I think I can bring them around, I just need you safe just in case."

Mercy knew that when Thomas really wanted to do something, there was no stopping him. "Alright," Mercy relented, "But come back to me, okay."

"Don't worry, I will," Thomas assured her, and then he tenderly kissed her cheek, "I love you."

"Love you, too," Mercy said, then she turned, and walked away, glancing back once, seeing the three men arguing.

The truck was a close enough to where they were it was relatively short walk, but far enough away that Mercy couldn't see or hear what was going on. She sat in the passenger seat for about twenty minutes going out of her mind with worry. That was when the first gunshot went off.

Mercy leapt from the truck, not even shutting the door and ran back into the forest. Two more gun shots went off. Then another. "Thomas!" She screamed desperately, knowing he might not be able to answer, "Thomas!"

At that point she got to the side of the road when they were and two her horror discovered that all three men lying on the ground, dead or dying.

"No!" Mercy shouted, running over to Thomas and trying to stop the bleeding from his chest.

"Mercy..." He rasped out, barely able to say it.

"Don't talk," Mercy said, frantically trying find some way, any way, to stop the bleeding and fix the wounds, her desperation overcoming her hunger, "I can stop, the bleeding you're going to be fine."

"Sweetie, you know that's not true," Thomas said, then blood came out of his mouth as if to emphasize the point.

"But, if I can just get some help-" Mercy began.

"Mercy," He said, in a weak, raspy voice, grabbing her wrist with the last of his strength, "Don't torture yourself, please." He knew he was dying. He long came to terms with the fact that he probably wouldn't make it to old age, although being taken out by other hunters wasn't exactly what he had expected, but still, he was relatively ready, well, as ready as one could ever be. The one thing he absolutely hated, was leaving Mercy alone. "Sorry."

"Thomas, you have nothing to be sorry for," Mercy said, taking his hand and squeezing it, knowing this would be the last time she would get to tell him what she needed to, "You gave me a chance when anyone else in your situation would just kill me, you gave me hope when I felt my life was over, you...you loved me when I though nobody could and when I though I couldn't love ever again. And I love you."

"I love you too kid," Thomas said, with his last once of strength, "Do good for me, okay?"

"Okay," Mercy said, then she leaned down, whipped the blood away and kissed him one last time, as he drew his final breaths.

She burned all three of them, stalling on burning Thomas as long as she could. When at last that moment came she did it with all the dignity she could muster, because that was what deserved. She sobbed as the fire blazed.

At that point Mercy felt someone shaking her. She opened her eyes to see the Werewolf Alpha standing over her. "It's time." She said, seriously.

Mercy sat up without a word, then stood. "Let's get this show on the road." Then she left the Alpha lead her out of the room.

They walked down the hall, the Alpha's hand around Mercy's wrist, when Mercy suddenly stopped short. The Alpha turned to look at her with an inpatient look. "What is it?" The Alpha asked irritably.

"Do you think I could...do we have enough time that I could say goodbye," Mercy asked, "You know, to the boys?"

The Alpha looked out a nearby window, checking the position of the sun. "Oh, I suppose," She said, sounding board, "It's a small enough request. But be quick about it."

The Alpha lead Mercy first to the room where Dean was being kept. One look from the Alpha and the guard left them in without a word.

Mercy's heart sunk when she saw how securely Dean had been secured to the beam. If one of them was going to get lose it was not going to be him. "Hey," He said when he saw her walk in, "Look what the cat dragged in." He smiled at her.

She gave her a sheepish smile back. "Well, not a cat exactly." She was quiet for a moment then said, "I wanted to say goodbye, you know, in case this doesn't go the way we want it to."

"Hey, don't talk like that," Dean said, "It will." Dean was lying through his teeth. He knew as well as she did that this was just a stalling tactic to buy them more time, but hey, if this was the last time he was gonna see her, the least he could do was boost her confidence.

"How do you even get into a police station with terrible lying like that," Mercy said, giving him a little half simile.

She was silent for a moment, trying to figure out a way to relay what she had learn to Dean without the Alpha knowing it. Even if she whispered it in his ear, the Alpha would hear. And it wasn't as if there was anything she could write it down on. But...there was something she could do. Quickly she looked Dean in the face and mouthed the words: Eat Heart.

"What?" Dean whispered, not sure what the message meant.

"Goodbye Dean," Mercy said, acting as if she hadn't done anything strange "And thanks. For everything." Then she left with the Alpha.

When the Alpha took her to where they stashed Dean, it took a minute for Mercy to find him. At last she saw him in the corner. "How'd you get all the way over there?" Mercy asked casually, as if this wasn't her last stop before her death.

"I was trying to get lose," Sam replied, "It didn't work out so well."

Sam was not a thoroughly trussed up as Dean so Mercy could see a way out for him. Since it worked so well the last time she decided to mouth the words: _Chew them off._

This time Sam understood and nodded.

Mercy looked back at the Alpha and said, "Look, I don't know how long she is gonna wait so I'm just gonna say what I have to say. Thanks for giving me a chance."

"Don't mention it," Sam replied.

"So, I guess this is goodbye then," Mercy said.

"Don't sell yourself short," Sam said, "Between the two of us, my money's on you."

"Thank you," Mercy said, and then headed back to the Alpha. There was no stalling, no more avoiding it. This was happening. But maybe, just maybe she could get the Alpha's heart.

Maybe she could still do good.


End file.
